My Mission:
To improve our understanding of human nature in a way that helps to further human flourishing.
My Vision:
A world where human flourishing harmonizes with Earth's Life Systems
If Morality requires clear boundaries, fair and equitable rules, and active participation of group members in monitoring and enforcement, it resembles in some ways the conditions that make for successful long-term management of a Common Pool Resource. A C ommon Pool Resource , sometimes called a CPR , is a resource such as a body of water, irrigation channel, fishery, alpine meadow, etc., which is held in common. Common Pool Resources are akin to Public Goods such as public roads, in that, if they are available, they are available to everyone. The thing about a CPR that is different from a public good is that when one takes away from the pool, there is less in the pool. With public goods this is not the case. If I drive on a road, I don’t make the road less available to others. A Moral System can be seen as a kind of Social Capital ; something that’s necessary for human society to get off the ground; something that, once put in plac...
Is deference to authority the basis for morality? According to Christian doctrine, the “original sin”was disobedience, which is what led to the first humans being separated from God and ejected from paradise. The Bible tells us that at first God planted a tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden of Eden and then forbade the humans from eating its fruits. Here we have the very first test of obedience, the kind where children are given access to an attractive goody but are expressly forbidden from partaking, in order to see whether they have the self-discipline to obey authority. Apparently, Adam and Eve failed the first test, hence the idea of “original sin”. Note that later in the Bible, one of the “ten commandments” is “Honour your father and mother”. Put this way, deference to a parent’s authority appears to be a human universal. Indeed, as the Psychologist Jean Piaget showed, all young children recogni...
A philosophical thought experiment is supposed to clarify a philosophical problem. Peter Singer’s famous thought experiment about the difference, or lack of difference, between saving a nearby life versus saving a far away life, does appear to clarify, but in fact it conceals an illegitimate move. The assumption that morality applies universally leads to a problem: are we, as individuals, morally responsible for the whole world? This would imply an impossible burden on each human being. Singer’s logic is relentless and seems irrefutable. But he makes an illegitimate move when he goes from a moral ought to an ethical ought. Singer, like most modern and ancient philosophers, (with some prominent exceptions, i.e. PF Strawson, Bernard Williams and Stephen Darwall ) , believes that there is no real difference between morality and ethics. As a preliminary I’d like to thank Professor Singer for doing philosophy a service in putting moral p...
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